This invention relates generally to table lamps and particularly to a novel rechargeable battery operated table lamp specifically for use in the food and beverage industry and which has the appearance of a candle lamp.
The lamp to be described will serve to increase the acceptance of rechargeable battery table lamps, and thus increase the favorable impact of such lamps in the following specified areas:
Safety: In many areas of the country fire marshalls are banning "open flame" light fixtures at tables to protect customers, employees and buildings from fire hazard. By utilizing battery powered table lights this hazard is removed. The rechargeable battery lamps also provide safety and usable emergency lighting in the event of power blackout, thus complying with many existing statutes requiring standby emergency lighting in public facilities.
Ecology: Air pollution from the burning of a multiplicity of "open flame" candle fixtures is eliminated by the use of rechargeable battery lighting. There is no longer any wax laden candle smoke for patrons to breathe and the stench of snuffed out candles is eliminated.
Energy Conservation: In warmer climates, open flame candles burning in a closed area generate significant heat that air conditioners must overcome. For example, the estimated increase in electrical costs per month for air conditioning equipment to overcome the heat output from forty open flame light fixtures in a resturant is over fifty dollars per month. This represents a considerable waste of energy when one totals the thousands of food and beverage establishments using open flame light fixtures.
Another energy saving is realized at the end of each work shift when a clean-up crew requires adequate flood lighting for proper cleaning of an establishment. When flame light candle lamps are used, extra time is required to change candles and clean the soot and wax from the lighting fixtures and table areas. By use of battery table lamps, the work time is materially reduced with a corresponding reduction in the flood lighting requirements and power usage. When such battery powered lamps are used, the intimate lighting with ability to read menus is maintained with a great reduction in main overhead room ambient light levels and a meaningful saving in energy.
Rechargeable battery powered table lamps are often considered objectionable because of the continual need to change batteries. A fully charged battery should power a small flicker-type lamp with illumination equal to that of a normal table lamp candle for about eight to ten hours, a period quite adequate for most applications. But then the spent battery in each lamp at each table must be replaced with a fully charged battery for the next day use. This involves a costly expenditure for labor to remove the spent battery from the lamp, insert a new fully charged battery, place the spent battery in a recharger, and later to gather the now recharged batteries from the charger.
The battery lamp to be described and claimed employs rechargeable batteries but avoids the above discussed problems. There is no removal and replacing of reachargeable batteries from the lamp, and no handling of batteries in a recharger. When a battery becomes spent, the entire lamp is replaced in less time than that required to relight a candle in a candle lamp. Further, there is no lost labor expended in removing lamp bulbs from the fixture to facilitate battery charging. By allowing the bulbs to remain mounted in the lamp unit, no loss of misplaced and/or broken bulbs occurs.